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January 19, 2013

A prosecutor in Lapeer, Michigan says, “No harm, no foul,” after a charter school took the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) advice and hired a armed security guard who promptly left his handgun unattended in a student bathroom.

Chatfield School co-directors Matt Young and Bill Kraly announced last week that they had hired retired Lapeer County Sheriff’s Dept. firearms instructor Clark Arnold as a security guard in response to the December mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

“It’s a tremendous asset to the safety of our students,” Young told WNEM in a report that aired on Tuesday.

But by Wednesday, the school had admitted to The Flint Journal that the retired firearms instructor had made a “made a breach in security protocol” and left his unloaded handgun unattended in the school restroom “for a few moments.”

“The school has put additional security procedures in place that follow local law enforcement practices and guidelines,” a statement from Young said. “At no time was any student involved in this breach of protocol. We will continue to work on improving school security.”

The school director insisted that the incident had been reported to authorities, but said that any repercussions for the newly hired guard were “a personnel matter.”

Lapeer County Prosecutor Byron Konschuh expected that no criminal charges would be filed because no one was harmed.

“If you left a gun unattended and a toddler finds it and shoots and hurts someone, it could be some kind of reckless use of a firearm,” Konschuh explained,

He added that “[i]t’s almost like no harm no foul” because no students were injured in this case.

A 2008 resolution from the Lapeer Country Board of Commissioners indicated that Arnold had joined the Lapeer County Sheriff’s Dept. in 1976 as a corrections officer before being promoted to a road patrol officer in 1978. He served as a Certified Firearms Instructor, Certified Taser Instructor and Pepper Spray Instructor before retiring on April 19, 2008 with 32 years of service.

Ok, no one hurt. But still. 18 months in jail should be his consequence. Mandatory.Would he, or anyone else forget a gun again?

If a child had been present at the time, or if a child had been the one to report it or anything like that...this sentence should raise to 5 years. Mandatory.(for each child/person in danger of being harmed)

Accidental discharge? 5 years mandatory with noone around the incident---5 years extra, mandatory, for each person that was within harm's way. 10 years for anyone injured. 20 for a death. Mandatory.

No 'pleas'....No 'good-time'.

I am FULLY in favor of the fact that any 'gun-control' "law" or mandate or whatever is ABSOLUTELY illegal. In fact, to me the possession of a gun, any gun, is a human right at this point. there's no argument that can possibly negate that. No incident could either. You're NOT taking my most effective means of protecting my children or my loved-ones, and acquiring food if anything happens...put all the effin laws you want on the books--they are NOT valid. Period.Gun-control means---using both hands responsibly and effectively. Period.

I do, however, also feel that irresponsibility with a gun should have SEVERE penalties...and they should be MANDATORY.You might not be able to fix stupid, but you CAN make them think a little. Alot of them anyway. No one would be able to completely STOP the stupid BS, but I think the sentencing would deter a whole HELL of a lot of it.

Banning, regulating ownership of, and confiscating the guns/accessories is NOT going to work, is illegal(and INHUMAN at this point), and is impossible to achieve.

This entire story reeks of pure B.S.. It contains all of the "talking points" for gun elimination, which means "taking out" the NRA, and that the gun is at fault (not the moron who left it there.) What was this guard doing in the student bathroom in the first place?? Seems to me that there are seperate bathroom facilities for the grown-ups.....Ooops! That's right....this was a set up for gun elimination, you can't leave a gun in a grown-ups bathroom, it has to endanger the kids.